An often overlooked best practice is that for file naming conventions.
Files should always be renamed with a prefix of the last modified date in YYYY-MM-DD format, for sorting purposes, and contain a meaningful name and version number.
The file name itself should be meaningful to the subject matter and topic at hand, for example if you’re working on UAT Test Scripts for ITSM then you could use 2020-05-19 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts as the complete file name. Leading Date, Subject Mater, and Topic.
Descriptions such as “final” and “complete” should also be discouraged as 99% of the time there will be revisions.
This best practice ensures files are easily found, sorted, and clearly indicate the last modified date, version, and file contents.
Note that the file saved date/time often changes as files are sent via email, download again, copied, or saved by mistake.
For example, Task #8043 has two attachments and without proper file naming conventions it is unclear which file is the latest for the ITSM UAT Test scripts:
- Copy of 2020-09-11 – Sample UAT Test Scripts Complete.xls
should be
2020-09-11 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts v2 - 2020-09-11 – Sample UAT Test Scripts Complete.xls
should be
2020-09-14 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts v3
In Summary, for file naming conventions use the format YYYY-MM-DD Subject Matter – Topic – v#.
